1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a food patty molding apparatus and method designed to produce a high output of food patties of uniform size, weight and texture in an efficient, cost effective operation promoting consistent cooking and food safety.
2. Description of Prior Art
The processed food industry continues to seek tools and methods to produce food patties, such as for hamburgers, veggie burgers and other foods, more efficiently and in greater quantities. It is also desirable to produce patties that are uniform in size, weight and texture to promote consistent cooking and food safety. Another desirous quality in the food processing industry is to reduce the need and frequency of mechanical repairs.
In machines presently used in the food patty processing industry, mold plates with six cavities are used to form patties. Food product is directed through a single fill slot and into the cavities for shaping. The fill slot generally runs the length of the mold plate and supplies food matter to all six cavities. Attempts to include more than six mold cavities using this design has resulted in substantial excess food matter waste and irregular patty size, weight and texture. This is particularly true of attempts to design mold plates with more than one row of patty cavities. Typical problems include overlapping patties, excess food matter on patties known as xe2x80x9clips,xe2x80x9d patties made with insufficient food matter known as xe2x80x9cpartialsxe2x80x9d and irregularly formed patty sides referred to as xe2x80x9cragged edges.xe2x80x9d Accordingly, a solution for these problems is needed.
A number of inventions have attempted to address some of these problems, but none has succeeded in overcoming all these limitations in one invention. For example, three patents issued to Holly address some, but not all, of the above problems. In Holly, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,747,160, 3,750,232, and 3,765,056, a molding apparatus having a sliding plate containing mold openings is disclosed. The plate alternates between a food filling phase and a patty discharging phase, which is accomplished by knock-out rings. While the Holly references address the goal of increased patty output, these patents fail to address machine efficiency problems. Nor do the Holly references specifically address patty size, weight and texture issues.
In Sandburg, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,595, patty size, weight and texture is referenced, but not patty output and machine efficiency. Nor is the efficient multiple row patty cavities mold plate utilized in these patents. The same is true in Sandburg, U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,376. In Lindee, U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,241, double row patty mold plates are used in conjunction with shear blades which control patty shape. However, Lindee fails to address other limitations discussed above. Currently, double row mold plates are used in the industry for small patty sizes, but not for larger sized so called xe2x80x9c10-1xe2x80x9d patties (i.e. 10 equal-sized patties made from one pound of food matter).
Another limitation not addressed in the prior art is that of machine wear and tear. It is estimated that connector rods, used to reciprocate and cushion the mold plate, are serviced approximately every ninety days during normal use. The cost of a connector rod is approximately $1,500.00. This cost in addition to related repairs and down time, costs are serious problems, not addressed in any of the prior art above. A further limitation is that much of the prior art claims entire machines rather than less expensive, and more versatile adaptive tooling devices.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a food patty molding apparatus and method that overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art.
The present invention is an apparatus and method to produce an increased output food matter patties with a reduction of normal machinery wear and tear. Rather than require a new patty forming machine, the present invention is a tooling improvement which can be adapted to machines already in use.
The present invention comprises a mold plate with two or more rows of patty cavities. This multiple row configuration can potentially double, or more, the output capacity of machines used in the industry. The preferred embodiment illustrates two rows of large xe2x80x9c10-1xe2x80x9d patties.
The mold plate reciprocates between a filling position and a discharging position. When the mold plate is in the filling position, the patty cavities are individually filled with food product. When the mold plate is in the discharging position, customized knock-out cups simultaneously pass through patty cavities and dislodge the formed food matter patties onto a conveyor belt for further processing.
Positioned between the food source and the mold plate is a fill slot plate. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the fill slot plate contains a plurality of fill slots in two or more rows, each of which is designed to correspond to an individual patty cavity. Food product is compressed by plungers and pushed through the fill slots and into individual patty cavities. The fill slots in the present invention are positioned, angled and shaped in a manner to ensure proper food matter flow into the patty cavity resulting in consistent patty size, weight and texture. A custom breather plate is positioned adjacent to the mold plate and opposite the fill slot plate. The breather plate is designed to evacuate air from the patty cavities and collect and route excess food matter back to a food source.
According to an alternate embodiment of the present invention, the fill slot plate contains a plurality of fill slots in a single row, each of which corresponds to an individual patty cavity of one row of patty cavities. According to this embodiment, each fill slot contains- sufficient food product to fill two or more patty cavities. Thus, food is compressed by plungers and pushed through the fill slots and into individual patty cavities in a first row. The mold plate then repositions itself such that the fill slots are aligned with the second row of individual patty cavities and the plunger once again compresses food and pushes the food out through the fill slots into the individual patty cavities in the second row.
In addition to increased patty output by virtue of its multiple row configuration, the present invention is designed to utilize slower machine operating speed. This results in significantly less wear and tear on the patty forming machines. In presently known machines, connector rods are used to reciprocate and cushion the mold plate. Under normal use, connector rods are serviced approximately every ninety days at a cost of $1,500 per unit. In addition to the costs of replacement, there are associated repair costs as well as machine down time. These inefficiencies can be essentially cut in half, or more, with the present invention due to its ability to operate at slower speeds without compromise to output.
As discussed above, typical machines used in the industry use plungers to route food matter from a source, through fill slots and into patty cavities. Each plunger is activated by a 4xe2x80x3 or greater hydraulic cylinder in standard machines. However, the preferred embodiment of the present invention uses a faster, more efficient 3xc2xcxe2x80x3 cylinder which enables sufficient compression to fill twelve or more patty cavities.
In a preferred embodiment, the mold plate reciprocates at 65 strokes per minute, some 30% lower than the typical 90 to 95 strokes per minute used in currently available machines. Despite this reduction in stroke frequency, patty output is nonetheless increased. The present invention operating at 65 strokes per minute has increased performance as compared to machines currently used in the industry operated at top frequencies of 95 strokes per minute. Further, most machines used in the industry, such as the Formax 26 machine manufactured by Formax, Inc. of Mokena, Ill., have maximum stroke frequencies of 95 to 97 strokes per minute. The present invention can be operated at stroke frequencies faster than 65 strokes per minute, resulting in an equivalent of potentially up to 190 strokes per minute rate, or better, as compared with machines presently used in the food patty industry.
In a preferred embodiment, custom operational programming software orchestrates the timing of plunger compression and plunger release in the patty manufacturing process. The programming in the preformed embodiment of the present invention greatly reduces typical problems associated with the food patty manufacturing such as overlapping patties, xe2x80x9clips,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9crugged edges,xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cpartialsxe2x80x9d thereby promoting consistent cooking and food safety.
The present invention may be better understood by referring to the following detailed description, which should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The detailed description of a particular preferred embodiment, described below, is intended to be a particular example, and not a limitation.